Dangerous Reads

Publisher Mike Hoy gives authors from the lunatic fringe an outlet

By Caleb O. Brown, Snitch

| October 3, 2003 Issue

When it comes to book publishing, Mike Hoy has only two criteria: "One, we have to be able to read it, and, two, we have to be able to not stop reading it." As a result, Hoy's company, Loompanics Unlimited, houses a collection of some of America's most unorthodox reads, writes Caleb O. Brown in a recent Snitch report. Hoy has come under fire for publishing such controversial titles as Secrets of Methamphetamine Manufacture and Be Your Own Undertaker: How to Dispose of a Dead Body. When NPR host Bob Garfield asked Hoy to explain how Loompanics could sell such a "disgraceful" work as Conversations With a Pedophile, Hoy retorted, "I believe this book was published by HarperCollins. Are you going to call HarperCollins up and harangue them for assisting pedophiles?" Ultimately, Hoy makes no apologies for exercising his Constitutional right to ensure that publications "from the lunatic fringe of the libertarian movement" are "available and in print."
-- Erin Ferdinand